I'm at a loss. I put in electronic ignition in my '87 PS 190 recently and then took out the timing gun to finish the job. It ran very poorly at 8 BTDC, although I could get it to purr at 1,000 RPM with it timed at 24 BTDC. This seems absurd. I did not take an initial timing reading with the points, so I'm not sure what it was before this project.

My timing gun is on #1 cylinder and my spark is strong. I have checked for vac leaks as well.

You install the rotor in the same position it came off? Did you move any plug wires?

Yeah, the rotor is keyed so it can only go on the shaft one way. I've checked and re-checked the wires & firing order time and time again.

I did get it to idle at about 800 @ 16 BTDC last night after playing with the mixture and idle screws. The idle quality was not excellent, however.

When shutting down at idle, it doesn't want to restart again right away without a little throttle. I think the floats or needle may be causing it to flood but I'm not sure of a good way to determine this.

Some times when installing EI the plate that mounts shifts some from where #1 originally was. I would remove safety lanyard, then remove #1 spark plug bump starter over until compression comes up then verify where rotor is pointing. BTW which EI kit did you install. If it ran fine before installing this kit especially without messing with idle air mix screws than it's something with your EI. Theoretically #1 can be pointing at any post on cap as long as its on TDC at the same time.

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Some times when installing EI the plate that mounts shifts some from where #1 originally was. I would remove safety lanyard, then remove #1 spark plug bump starter over until compression comes up then verify where rotor is pointing. BTW which EI kit did you install. If it ran fine before installing this kit especially without messing with idle air mix screws than it's something with your EI. Theoretically #1 can be pointing at any post on cap as long as its on TDC at the same time.

I had this same thing happen with my 89 Tristar 351 Indmar. I installed the electronic ignition, fired it up. It ran great, put my timing light on it and it was something like 24 maybe even a tad higher, I can't remember its been a couple of years. I tried to set it at 8, it didn't run well at all. I tried 2 different timing lights, same result. I had help from a couple of smart people from this site. It still wouldn't run very well at 8 btdc, and it was really hard to re-start.

Finally, with the advice of the same members on this site, I set it back to the original setting before I changed to the electronic ignition (24 or what ever the exact number is) I set it there locked it down, left it and ran it that way for 2 years and 100 hours. It runs great and purrs like a kitten! Not sure that we have the same issue, but it sounds very similar to what I went through.

I just read back through everything I have posted. Look at my posts, find the one that says "not getting timing right" There are about 7 pages of info when I went through this same thing. Mine was at 30. It is still there today and runs great! Hope this helps you out!

Look at my posts, find the one that says "not getting timing right" There are about 7 pages of info when I went through this same thing. Mine was at 30. It is still there today and runs great! Hope this helps you out!

Just went and found your thread. It was helpful, thank you! I am going to attack this again tonight with a clear head.